{"id":3480,"date":"2019-01-28T19:47:31","date_gmt":"2019-01-28T19:47:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.com\/nigeria\/?p=3480"},"modified":"2019-01-28T19:47:31","modified_gmt":"2019-01-28T19:47:31","slug":"nigerias-hidden-opportunities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/nigerias-hidden-opportunities","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria’s hidden opportunities"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa’s most populous country has a reputation for corruption and chaos. But for companies that invest for the long term and look beyond the stereotypes, the rewards can be enormous.<\/h2>\n

In a small but airy showroom, racks are stocked with\u00a0brightly-patterned silk separates, kimono-style shirts and structured dresses. An elegant middle-aged woman \u2013 in town to attend a plethora of annual arts events \u2013 enters, and is greeted with hugs from the staff. It is a\u00a0welcome, air-conditioned escape from the busy highway outside.<\/p>\n

Rukky Ladoja founded Grey Projects in 2009, after struggling to find ready-to-wear clothes for her\u00a0job at a bank. She moved back to Lagos in 2008 from London, where she studied for a masters in economics and development studies. Fashion for young professional women was just one of the countless untapped business opportunities at the time. “Nigeria was such a low-hanging fruit for people\u2026 to try out things that weren\u2019t available locally yet,” she says.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

During October and November, artists, entrepreneurs and elites from around the\u00a0world criss-cross Nigeria\u2019s commercial capital, home to an\u00a0economy that is larger than Kenya\u2019s, to visit Lagos Fashion Week (sponsored by Heineken) and other annual arts festivals. International collectors, high society types and guests flock to Art X Lagos. On display in 2018 was Tutu, a\u00a0portrait by Nigerian modernist Ben Enwonwu, which was auctioned for an African record of \u00a31.2m at Bonhams in London earlier this year.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Nigeria, like Lagos, is a place of contradictions, energetic and exhausting. Before its most recent recession it was the biggest consumer of champagne in Africa, yet it has the largest number of extremely poor people in the world. It pumps around two million barrels of oil a day yet has no\u00a0properly functioning refineries. Imports of subsidised petrol cost the government an estimated $522m in 2017, while the grid generates just 4,000 megawatts of power a day on average (4 per cent of\u00a0the capacity of the UK\u2019s power stations).<\/p>\n

Aliko Dangote, Africa\u2019s richest man, has plans to change that, spending an estimated $12bn building a\u00a0refinery in Lagos that could process 650,000 barrels of oil a day. If the cement-to-sugar magnate succeeds it will be the biggest of its kind in the world. It could, if the petrol he produces is sold without government subsidies, transform Nigeria\u2019s\u00a0economy. But the project\u2019s completion date keeps being pushed back and, for now, its transformational effects remain a dream.<\/p>\n

Nigeria\u2019s bureaucrats are legendary for their obstructiveness and opacity, yet the country is home to some of the world\u2019s hardest-working, most\u00a0creative and optimistic people. Though reliable data\u00a0is hard to find, its film industry, dubbed Nollywood, pumps out around 1,000 movies a year,\u00a0second only in number to India\u2019s Bollywood. According to Okada Media, organisers of NollywoodWeek Paris which showcases the best of\u00a0the Nigerian film industry, the sector is the country\u2019s second-largest employer after agriculture and accounts for 2 per cent of Nigeria\u2019s GDP.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa’s most populous country has a reputation for corruption and chaos. But for companies that invest for the long term and look beyond the stereotypes, the rewards can be enormous. In a small but airy showroom, racks are stocked with\u00a0brightly-patterned silk separates, kimono-style shirts and structured dresses. An elegant middle-aged woman \u2013 in town to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":3485,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,30],"tags":[140,246],"class_list":["post-3480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","tag-art","tag-community"],"yoast_head":"\nNigeria's hidden opportunities - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/nigerias-hidden-opportunities\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nigeria's hidden opportunities\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Africa’s most populous country has a reputation for corruption and chaos. But for companies that invest for the long term and look beyond the stereotypes, the rewards can be enormous. In a small but airy showroom, racks are stocked with\u00a0brightly-patterned silk separates, kimono-style shirts and structured dresses. 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